Weathering Eclipses/Plutonic Gains and Losses

 Hurricane Sandy as photographed by NASA's Terra satellite (MODIS) on Oct 28 2012 at 16.00

(NASA image courtesy Lance Modis Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC)

 
While people and companies and government agencies go about cleaning up after the storm which hit the east coast of the United States, something else has happened which seems of astrological note.

The New York stock exchanges closed down for two days. Without question, Wall Street (the place, not the industrial complex) was in an evacuation zone. And without question, the heads of financial state wanted (read: needed) investors to feel secure about the functionality of the exchanges. They didn’t need people to get freaked out by having power cutting out or rain, wind or water wreaking damage to undermine confidence in the markets.

But what’s interesting is the general aura of not just Wall Street, but everyone around the storm zone. Let’s keep people safe, they said. As someone who listened to the news for days and days on end after 9/11, there seems a huge distance from what happened then to what is happening today.

Yes, there will be business losses. And yes, the United States is gagging on debt personal and national.

But it seems that life – and the valuing of life and the simple dignity of life is coming to the fore.

October 30, 2012 - A train sitting at Metro-North Railroad's Croton Harmon Station in New York

(photo credit Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York)

Pluto’s conjunction of Facies has meant many things. Facies being a nebula, it’s a reference to ‘many things which together seem like one.’ That can be our life, it can be the way a governor or mayor or individual sees their country and all their fellow countrymen.

Facies has a reputation for ‘evil times’ and selfishness. Pluto represents how we experience the results of our choices and priorities and feel about what results. That Pluto is known as ‘transformative’ is here brilliantly shown by the difficulty, the ‘evil moment’ arising and attitudes reflecting a better value.

That Plutonic ‘outcomes’ always come from our experience in action and interaction with our life is the signature of Pluto being the ‘outcome ruler’ of Scorpio. And Scorpio is famously about (among other things) finance and investments.

Meanwhile, Facies is in Capricorn, the sign of worldly doing and commerce. 

And let’s throw in Saturn. As ruler of Capricorn and currently transiting Scorpio, Saturn is simply always representative of the ‘extent of our human reach.’

So in caring about human beings in the face of a giant storm, in prioritizing the safety of employees without complaining about profits lost, everybody has faced that evil thing which we cannot control and done all ‘within human reach.’

That all this is happening in advance of a Scorpio solar eclipse suggests there’s a lot about this moment which reflects the evolving of our feelings. The eclipse’s position in the last third of Scorpio, an area of the zodiac which brings external forces to one or all of us in forcing us to recognize what’s really important to us…that seems very much part of the moment.

Hurricane_Sandy's damage in Summit, New Jersey

(photo credit Tomwsulcer, October 30, 2012)

As someone who has lived with metaphysical symbols for plural decades it’s hard to express exactly how apt it seems that this moment would come along. Capricorn being all about structures added to the linking of Capricorn/Scorpio as ‘what we structure our lives on and place value to’ …the fact that Saturn often manifests as slow, tough growth even while it represents the limits of life, the limits life places upon us, how we are challenged to live up to our responsibilities as humans which in interactive Scorpio would ask whether we value our fellow man…

I’ve typified Scorpio as ‘cold water’ and metaphysical ice. What I haven’t mentioned lately is Neptune’s position. Neptune is currently sitting at 0 Pisces, still in retrograde, having arrived at that degree back on September 22nd/21st, depending on what time zone you’re in.

And let’s remember, planet Neptune literally controls the orbit of Pluto. There are many threads here, it would appear…as there are whenever and however you talk about Facies.

 Hurricane Sandy's track as generated by NOAA (October 29, 2012)

This storm occurred with Neptune ‘stirring the depths’ of Pisces – which is the image of deep water. Saturn is always cold – and in Scorpio indicates a ‘change.’ The storm came to shore as a hurricane born in the tropics – and once there did the Scorpio thing (interacting) with a colder system, turning rain to sleet and snow.

The storm moved on shore with a Taurus Full Moon in opposition to Saturn…and trine Pluto. That signifies an enormous amount of energy. Untamed, that much energy can be destructive. When harnessed by human beings it can be determined. Organized. Firm and willing to pay the Scorpio/Saturn price.

I mentioned astrometeorology in a prior post. In astrometeorology, Mercury is an indicator of wind. Some thirteen hours before the storm made landfall, Mercury entered Sagittarius, the sign in which Mercury makes it’s most ‘sweeping’ statements, sometimes revealing the unknown or unanticipated, and sometimes overstepping known, even acceptable bounds.

Even safe bounds...and bounds of safety.

 Some of the flooding caused by Hurricane Sandy in New York City, this photo of Avenue C

in Manhattan's East Village was taken on October 30, 2012 by David Shankbone.

But when you take it all in...when you think through what this storm has done, if you put the dollar cost and the inevitable human tragedies which come with such events aside, on a purely metaphysical... philosophic... even spiritual level, this storm seems to have been a good deal.

After all, it showed that we still care about life, limb and our fellow human beings, rich and poor, pretty and plain, young and old.

And that enriches us. That gives us hope. That’s the process by which we feel ourselves feeling, be it sadness for what we lose or gratitude that things weren’t a whole lot worse.

Astrologically, that says Neptune wins – which seems to be our lot and incredibly proper. For if we care not about knowing we exist and that our connections to others mean far, far more than our differences, we have already given in to having - and being - nothing.
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